Mythical Sells Sporked to Savage Ventures // Battle for the Grocery Aisle Leads to Food Media M&A

By Chris Erwin

Read on our blog

Let’s break it down…

–TARGET: Sporked.com–

Overview

• Personality-driven food-focused digital brand focused on food reviews and news via web editorial, long-form video, and short-form formats

• Known for rigorous taste testing, product discovery, and fandom-first storytelling

• Serves as a "guide to the grocery aisle" for the digital-first generation

• Founded in 2022 by Mythical Co-founder Rhett McLaughlin and Justine Sterling

• 6-person editorial team

• HQ in Burbank, CA

Company Highlights

• Reached 1.6M monthly pageviews within two years of launch

• Led by Editor-in-Chief Justine Sterling, a veteran of People, Inc.

• Leverages authority from Good Mythical Morning (18.9M subscribers) to drive initial audience trust

• Strong cross-platform presence across IG, FB, Twitch, Snap, TikTok, and Twitter

Founding Story

• Co-founder Rhett McLaughlin conceived idea while trying to remember a past sauce ranking while standing in a grocery store aisle

• Wanted to do something in web form so fans didn’t have to scrub through video to get through YouTube marker, while being in Kroger aisle evaluating what products to buy

• Hired former senior digital editor for Food & Wine for People, Inc., Justine Sterling, to lead a team of professional "eaters"

• Used Mythical’s large fan base to garner initial momentum while growing its own following on TikTok and through Google SEO

• Goal of “being the go-to source for all grocery aisle (or online checkout) decisions”

Content Formats / IP

• Grocery Rankings and Reviews…

• Articles and videos that test food products to help shoppers decide what to buy (e.g., The Best Frozen Pizza or The Best Oat Milk)

• Social Media Content… 

• Short videos and posts on TikTok and Instagram that feature the team trying new snacks or sharing food "hacks"

Business Lines / Service Offerings

• Brand Partnerships… 

• Paid video placement and integrations, like the sponsored taste test they did for PepsiCo’s new lemon-lime soda Starry for its product launch 

• Affiliate Links… 

• Direct links within articles that allow readers to buy reviewed products from retailers like Amazon or Walmart

–SELLER PARENT CO: MYTHICAL ENTERTAINMENT–

NOTE: In all our years of writing this M&A newsletter, we actually haven’t done any deep dives on Mythical Entertainment. Which is surprising, since they’re one of the largest and longest-standing creator-led media business in operation today. This explains why we go a bit deeper on the “seller” in our analysis, including additional detail in the What Else Is Interesting section below…

Overview

• Internet-first entertainment studio

• Positions itself as a premium TV and content studio that’s great at running diversified business flywheels downstream from content…aka commerce, memberships, events, etc. 

• Known for managing majority of business in-house VS outsourcing like many other creator businesses

• Reaches 34M+ subscribers and 14B+ views across its YouTube channels, plus 26M+ social followers 

• Founded in 2006 by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal

• Self-financed, no outside capital

• ~100 team members

• HQ in Burbank, CA

Founding Story

• Founders Rhett and Link first met in 1984 during their first day of elementary school

• The duo began their creative partnership by writing songs and filming videos together throughout their youth

• Launched their main YouTube channel in 2006, eventually evolving from a two-man operation into a full-scale studio

• Created the flagship series Good Mythical Morning in 2012, which became the cornerstone of their digital media empire

Select Content Formats / IP

• Daily Variety Shows…

• Long-running YouTube series like Good Mythical Morning and Mythical Kitchen

• With GMM nearing its 3,000th episode and MK releasing 100+ per year, both demonstrate the sheer elasticity of their evergreen content

• Podcast Network…

• Audio shows that expand on their video stars (e.g., Ear Biscuits or A Hot Dog is a Sandwich)

Business Lines / Service Offerings

• Fan Commerce & Merch…

• Full range of direct-to-consumer merchandise, including core branded apparel (e.g. Mythical hoodies) and specialty consumer products

• Subscription Communities…

• Operates a large paid membership program (the Mythical Society) offering exclusive content, early access to tickets, and member-only perks and collectibles 

• Advertising & Sponsorships…

• Brand sponsorships and programmatic advertising across YouTube and owned digital 

• Live & Ticketed Experiences…

• Monetizes fandom through live touring and ticketed virtual events (via partnerships w/ Kiswe, including premium formats such as Good Mythical Evening)

• Content & IP Extensions…

• Expands the brand through books and long-form IP, with multiple releases contributing to audience growth and brand durability

• Content Licensing…

• Licenses content to FAST platforms and streamers

• Product Licensing…

• Licenses products at retail (including a recent Zumiez partnership), while maintaining a primary focus on DTC commerce

Capital Markets History

• Dec 2025: Sold Sporked.com, a food-focused digital editorial brand, to Savage Ventures, a venture studio and investment firn

• Dec 2024: Acquired First We Feast, a food-focused multiplatform media and content studio, as a member of a buyer consortium alongside Soros Funds and Crooked Media, for $83M (our deal analysis)

• Jun 2023: Acquired Smosh, an online comedy channel, for an estimated (per trade reports) under $10M in cash (we expand on this below) 

–BUYER: Savage Ventures–

Overview

• Venture studio and investment firm specializing in digital media, commerce, and technology

• Focuses on acquiring and scaling "trusted vertical brands" at the intersection of utility and entertainment

• Founded in 2020 by Sam Savage (CEO)

• 34 associated members via LI

• HQ in Nashville, TN

Founding Story

• Founder Sam Savage previously served in leadership roles at various tech startups before consolidating his holdings under the Savage Ventures umbrella

• The company gained industry momentum in 2020 by partnering with Clay Travis to relaunch the sports media brand OutKick

• Following the sale of OutKick to FOX in 2021, the firm shifted focus toward a diversified portfolio of music, health, and outdoor brands

Company Highlights

• Created over $750M in enterprise value across its portfolio of digital-first brands since 2018

• Formed a joint venture with VICE Media to relaunch and operate digital properties like Munchies and Motherboard

• Built a centralized, proprietary tech platform that has driven 121% traffic growth for its acquired publishing assets

• Owns and operates a diverse network of over 40 premium media brands reaching more than 100M people

• Partners with high-profile creators and global personalities, such as Bear Grylls, to relaunch enthusiast platforms like Outdoors.com

• Maintains a significant owned audience of over 2M email subscribers across niche interest verticals

Business Lines / Service Offerings

• Digital Publishing & Media… 

• Operates a portfolio of high-traffic enthusiast sites across sports, lifestyle, music, and health (e.g., Sportskeeda)

• Creator & Talent Services… 

• Provides operational infrastructure and monetization support for digital-first talent and social brands

• Performance Marketing & Commerce… 

• In-house agency capabilities focusing on affiliate optimization, lead generation, and programmatic ad tech

Capital Markets History

• Dec 2025: Acquired Sporked.com, a food-focused digital editorial brand, from Mythical Entertainment

• Aug 2025: Lended $75M in debt financing to Vice Media, a global digital media publishing company

• Aug 2024: Acquired SV Comicbook, an online news and community platform for comic book and game enthusiasts

–DEAL DETAILS–

Overview

• Announced December 19, 2025

• Financial terms were not disclosed

Strategic Rationale

• Adds a food-focused digital brand to Savage Ventures’ growing portfolio of lifestyle and consumer media properties.

• Brings in a utility-focused editorial brand that helps audiences make purchase decisions through product reviews and food discovery, aligning directly with Savage Ventures’ mission.

• Expands Savage’s reach and content creation capabilities across web, long-form video, and short-form social.

• Creates opportunities to grow Sporked through broader distribution, commerce integrations, and partnerships in grocery, kitchen, and home categories.

• “Sporked is a natural fit within our growing digital ecosystem,” said Savage Ventures Founder and CEO Sam Savage, pointing to its strong brand voice and clear point of view.

• “We're now looking to be very much our own brand and gain our own audience and our own fans who come to us for us,” said Justine Sterling.

• All public statements around the transaction frame the sale as a growth-oriented ownership transition rather than a pullback in conviction → “Sporked is a truly unique asset… Savage Ventures is the right partner to take Sporked into its next chapter.” — Jawhara Tariq, SVP of Corporate Development & Investments, Mythical Entertainment

Post-Deal Operations

• Sporked will operate under Savage Ventures ownership following the acquisition.

• Editor-in-Chief Justine Sterling will continue to lead the brand, along with the full-time editorial team built under Mythical.

• Sporked will maintain its existing editorial voice, brand identity, and content formats across web, long-form video, and short-form social.

• Savage Ventures will support Sporked’s growth through expanded distribution, commerce integrations, and strategic partnerships, particularly across grocery, kitchen, and home categories.

–WHAT ELSE I FIND INTERESTING–

The Grocery Aisle is the New Battleground 

We’re seeing a distinct rise in food media M&A. From Amaze acquiring The Food Channel for $650k (deal analysis) and the $83M sale of First We Feast (deal analysis), to People Inc.’s acquisition of our client, The Feedfeed (deal analysis) and Wonder’s $90M acquisition of Tastemade (deal analysis). 

Why? 

Food media overindexes on audience media consumption and purchase conversion. We’ve been writing about this for a long time (see our 2022 predictions here).

Further, food is no longer just a lifestyle vertical; it’s a high-frequency, recession-resistant commerce engine. Buyers aren't just looking for eyeballs; they’re  looking for "path to purchase" authority. 

Sporked is a prime example of this shift. 

It isn’t just a blog; it’s a decision-making utility ("The Guide to the Grocery Aisle"). In a market where CPMs are volatile, owning the affiliate conversion point in the grocery sector is a diversification play for a media portfolio.

Fox Launches Creator Studio: The Convergence of Chef and Creator

It’s not just companies and assets trading hands (like Sporked or Hot Ones); it’s talent, too. 

Earlier this month, Fox Entertainment announced the launch of Fox Creator Studios, a new digital-first division debuting with a large food-focused roster. The headline isn't just that they signed Gordon Ramsay (the linear TV king) or Rosanna Pansino (the digital queen with 14M+ subs); it’s that they’re putting them under the same roof.

This validates the hybrid model we’ve been tracking: legacy media isn't just trying to buy younger audiences anymore; they’re building infrastructure to bridge the gap between TV chefs and YouTube stars, treating them as peers in IP incubation.

Speaking of bridging that gap, we’re currently representing a hybrid content studio and talent management group with a deep roster of celebrity chefs who are scaling their digital O&O footprints. If you seek to acquire a talent management business with a premium chef and food-focused roster, as well as a large premium and growing content library, DM me.

The Exec Talent Ecosystem Driving Deals

M&A, particularly for smaller scale media businesses, is often as much about acquiring leadership as it is about acquiring IP. 

There’s an interesting narrative thread connecting these recent deals. 

Sporked is led by Justine Sterling, a former executive at People Inc. (Dotdash Meredith). When senior talent with deep vertical expertise migrates to start new ventures, it can leave a strategic gap at the incumbent legacy publishers.

It’s therefore not uncommon for major publishers to look externally for high-functioning teams and established leadership to reinvigorate a vertical after internal talent shifts. The Sporked origin story helps contextualize why traditional media buyers like People Inc., and many others involved in our company’s active M&A processes, are open to acquiring turnkey teams and proven operators in the food space right now.

Why Mythical Sold Sporked

On the surface, it seems contradictory: Mythical was part of the buyer consortium that just bought First We Feast, including Hot Ones. And Mythical has a large existing food media business. 

So why sell Sporked? 

The sale signals a disciplined portfolio rationalization. Mythical is an entertainment studio; their DNA is a premium personality-driven content, merchandise, and fandom (the Hot Ones model). Sporked, conversely, is a publishing asset—it relies on SEO, written editorial, affiliate grids, and site traffic (the Wirecutter model).

By selling Sporked to Savage Ventures, a firm that explicitly specializes in scaling digital publishing assets and tech-driven SEO, Mythical is admitting that the food media ecosystem has different components, and they’re choosing where they want to make their bet. 

The signal is that Mythical is doubling down on video / IP while offloading the web-editorial operations to a partner better equipped to manage the high-utility side of the business. It’s a smart move to clear the decks and focus on their core competency: scaling premium social and digital video, not pageviews.

There are added insights here from Publish Press's coverage of the deal.

The New "Studio Row": Creators Moving in Next Door to Disney 

There’s a quiet but large shift happening in Burbank’s industrial geography: the YouTubers are becoming the landlords. 

We’re seeing a new "Creator Corridor" emerge where digital-first giants like Mythical Entertainment, The Try Guys, Smosh, and Dhar Mann are building large, full-scale production campuses literally down the street from traditional content studios like Warner Bros. and Disney. 

It’s not just office space; Dhar Mann’s facility alone is 125,000 square feet—rivaling traditional soundstages. React Media (formerly Fine Bros) and Studio71 also maintain significant footprints in the area. This physical co-location signals the industry's maturity: creators are no longer shooting in spare bedrooms; they’re competing for the same real estate, crew, and infrastructure as the legacy Hollywood giants that they’re disrupting.

That being said, we’ve also heard a contrarian POV here that top creators are over investing in studio space. The risk is that they’re incurring a high fixed cost structure that can’t flex with algorithm shifts and other market dynamics that could quickly change the revenue and profit trajectories of what is still a nascent creator media ecosystem. One that has much smaller and less reliable $$ flows VS the traditional content business model of years past. 

The Smosh Saga: From "Zero Dollar" Exit to Founder Independence

I never followed the Smosh story closely, which includes the decade plus saga of its sale to Defy / bankruptcy / buyback. But I dug into it when researching Mythical and their M&A history. Below is a quick synopsis for any of you who don’t know the full story – it’s a great, and early, datapoint in the increasing YouTube channel M&A. BTW there’s tons more online info on the ownership arc like in this Inc. Article and this video cut-down with the Smosh founders.

1. The Golden Handcuffs & The Paper Millionaires (2005–2011) To understand the rescue, you have to understand the original exit. Smosh founders Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla began posting to YouTube in 2005, effectively inventing the modern YouTuber career path. In 2011, looking to scale, they sold Smosh to Alloy Digital (which later merged with Break Media to form Defy Media).

Crucially, this deal was primarily a stock-for-stock transaction. On paper, the founders were successful; in reality, they had traded their IP for equity in a holding company that would never go public. When Defy Media imploded in 2018, that equity went to zero, meaning the founders lost all their financial value tied to their business AND los control of their company. 

2. Rescuing the Asset from Bankruptcy (2019) When Defy Media went into bankruptcy in late 2018, the Smosh brand was controlled by creditors (primarily Ally Bank). The founders had zero access to their own YouTube accounts, and the IP was being auctioned off to recoup Defy's $1.7M in debt obligations.

While traditional buyers saw a distressed asset, Mythical Entertainment saw peers in need of rescue. In early 2019, Mythical acquired Smosh for a reported <$10 million (per press reports but not confirmed by company)—purchasing it directly from the creditors, not the founders. This was critical: it prevented the brand from being stripped for parts by a non-media conglomerate. Mythical immediately restored operational stability, rehired the cast, and gave the team back its creative autonomy.

3. Doing Right by the Founders (The 2023 Buyback) Most media holding companies acquire IP to hold it forever. Mythical did the opposite. When co-founder Anthony Padilla expressed interest in reuniting with Ian Hecox in 2023, Mythical agreed to sell the majority stake back to the founders.

This transaction highlights a rare "creator-first" sensibility in M&A. Mythical likely could have demanded a higher open-market price from a strategic buyer, but instead, they chose to return the asset to its creators, retaining only a minority stake. This move validated Mythical’s reputation as a benevolent creator-first organization – they protected the asset, professionalized the business, and then facilitated a founder exit that returned control to the creative talent. It also set a new precedent in creator-to-creator M&A, AND was a strong signal to the creator marketplace about Mythical’s operating values. A strategic move that will in turn help Mythical attract more, high-quality creator talent to the Mythical content studio and portfolio of businesses, which will help drive continued growth as one of the top creator-led media businesses. 

I'm the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for creator economy and social / audio agencies. From buy and sell-side M&A and fundraising to market research and go-to-market planning. 

DM me on LinkedIn or email [email protected]

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